April 11th, 2011 
Ru-486 
France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population, has officially banned women from wearing full-face veils in public places.
Other European countries have drawn up bans on the burka and the niqab, but France is the first to put it into practice.
The law comes into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority, with president Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right.
Police said they arrested 59 people on Saturday, including 19 veiled women, who turned up for a banned protest in Paris over the law, while two more were detained as they attempted to travel to the rally from Britain and Belgium.
The new law says anyone refusing to lift his or her veil to submit to an identity check can be taken to a police station. There, officers must try to persuade them to remove the garment and can threaten fines.
A woman who repeatedly insists on appearing veiled in public can be fined 150 euros ($205) and ordered to attend re-education classes.
There are much more severe penalties for anyone found guilty of forcing someone else to hide his or her face “through threats, violence, constraint, abuse of authority or power for reason of their gender”.
Clearly aimed at fathers, husbands or religious leaders who force women to wear face veils, and applicable to offences committed in public or in private, the law imposes a fine of 30,000 euros and a year in jail.
Foreign extremists, including fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, have used the ban to argue France is at war with Islam and have called for attacks.
- AFP
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I’m not sure I agree with this due to the fact that there are women who have been raised to know nothing other than hiding their faces. What if all of a sudden in america it were illegal for women to wear shirts/bras/tops of any sort. THAT WOULD BE THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE SHIT! They arent accustomed to showing their faces.
I’ve never thought of that viewpoint, but I completely agree with you. This really feels like religious repression because they singled out the burka, why is that illegal, but ski masks are not? These knee-jerk reactionary laws are utter rubbish.
Isn’t that the same one the tall blue alien chick wears in Fifth Element?
they only ad to hide there faces since the 80s… Now we don’t have to fear it could be Bin Laden under it… Maybe just Carla Homolka.
You can’t wear a crucifix in public places in England… I can’t have my Chihuahua in a Muslim car in Canada…
This is America. We don’t wear burqas here. We don’t do mercy killings here. The analogy of women in America all of a sudden having to go topless is without logic or common sense. If people choose to come to this country they should embrace the laws and customs of this country. If you want to keep your shirt on, don’t go to a nude beach, would be more appropriate.
Religious repression is a Muslim code for “we want bring our religion including Sharia law to the rest of the world.”
Try wearing a ski mask when you go out in public some time. It may not be illegal, but go ahead and have a good time. Let me know how it works for you.
It is to prevent abuse of women who do not wish to wear a burqa. It is to prevent second class citizenship of women. It is to prevent Muslim terrorist posing as women. Islam is a religion of violence and oppression. It is, and has been at war with all non-Muslims and each other since its inception. Read the Koran it is all there. Read the history it is all there. Allah is not Jehovah. They are in direct oppositon to each other on all teachings and issues. Do not surrender your freedom of speech in the name of being politically correct.
@Franklin:
This is about France, not america. But if it WAS america, rest assured this law would not be passed because we have this little thing called freedom of religion and freedom of expression…I dunno, maybe you’ve heard of it?
To Franklin:
Do you know France, ever been there? We also have freedom of religion and expression, but also freedom of non-religion, which, in practice, is not really the case in America.
Religion is everywhere in America, and religious people (there are so many of them in America) really make you feel uncomfortable when they realize you are agnostic. (More than 80 % of Americans claim to belong to a religious denomination and more than 60% are Christians (better being one of them). 40 % claim to attend services nearly every week or more, and 58 % claim to pray at least weekly. Only 0.4% are atheist, and 0.5% agnostic)
No, I don’t pray, I don’t go to church and I’m not generous and good because some divinity tells me I have to be good and generous, otherwise I’ll go to hell. What makes me suspicious about the kindness of religious people is when they tell they are doing this or that because their god asks them to do it. In other words, it doesn’t come from their heart, but from an order. This looks like they would not do it if they were not asked to do it!!! History and news support that: war and violence rhyme with religion. Look at America, for sure the most violent of all the Western country, and also the most religious. In Western Europe, nobody risks his/her life because he/she is getting in politics. In the States, yes.
I just try to be good and be generous because I feel this is the way it should be, because I know that everybody needs love and attention, just like me.
Just say you’re agnostic or atheist in North America, and people look at you differently. For some of them, it’s worse than being a Muslim. For us Europeans, the American way looks like coming back to the 12th century, under the inquisition. Swearing on the Bible in Court was still done not so long time ago!!! In Canada, marriage is by default religious – and Christian. You need derogation if you are Muslim. If you are agnostic or atheist, it has to be multi-confessional. A joke or what!!! I know what I’m talking about: I got married there.
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